Chris Garver

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chris Garver was the youngest of three sons. His mother was an artist and turned him onto to drawing and painting by the age of six. He went on to attend The Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and at age 15, he received his first professional tattoo. Chris got his start in tattooing when he sold his bass guitar at 17 to buy tattoo equipment. He moved to New York in his early twenties, where he began tattooing professionally, quickly earning a name for himself due not only to the quality of his work, but also to his humble demeanor. In the years after, Garver has tattooed in both Americas, throughout Europe and Asia. He lived in Japan for a time and was tattooed by the famous Japanese Irezumi artists Horiyoshi, Horitomo, and Horitoshi. He has also been tattooed by a Buddhist Monk. Today, Chris is widely considered to be among the best tattoo artists in the world. In 2005, Garver was invited to work at Miami Ink, a new tattoo shop his friend Ami James was opening alongside Chris Nuñez in South Beach, Miami, FL. The shop became the stage for the TLC reality TV show "Miami Ink". Other tattoo artists on the show include Darren Brass, Kat Von D. and apprentice Yoji Harada. The show exhibits the process and finished work of these artists by featuring a number of customers along with their back-story and motivations for their tattoos. With a celebrity-studded list of private clients (and a wait list), he has set the bar for the rest of the guys in the show. They all respect and revere him. Chris handles his status with humility, but has little patience for sloppy work. He is at once stoic and soulful. For years, Garver owned a renamed tattoo shop in Hollywood, CA, called True Tattoo, in partnership with fellow tattooer Clay Decker. In April of 2007, he announced he was leaving that shop and relocating to Miami full-time.